In this episode, Lisa welcomes back Clay Travis, founder of OutKick and co-host of "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," to discuss the cover-up of Joe Biden's health, criticizing the media's role in downplaying his fitness for office. They also explore President Donald Trump's approach to Middle East peace, emphasizing his business-first strategy. The episode blends sports commentary with political analysis, encouraging critical thinking about media and diplomacy. The Truth with Lisa Boothe is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.
Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Truth with Lisa Booth, where we cut
through the noise and we try to get to the
heart of what's really happening. Today, we're going to dive
into all of the big stories with my guest Clay Travis.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
He's the founder of.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
OutKick and the host of The Clay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show. He's also my colleague from Fox News. So
we're going to talk a little bit about the Tennessee
volunteers prospects this football season because Clay Travis is a
huge Tennessee guy and I went to the University of Tennessee.
So we're going to cover the big topics football. We're
also going to talk about the cover up of Joe
(00:32):
Biden's health. Obviously, this book's out, Jake Tapper, Alex Thompson,
everyone's talking about it. So we'll get Clay's take about
the cover up of Joe Biden's health. Whilso unpack President
Trump's push for peace in the Middle East, using that
momentum he had from the Abraham Accords, striking all these
business deals in the Middle East, Why this business first
(00:54):
approach might just rewrite the region's future. Plus we'll tackle
the latest on Tariff's. Also, we're going to get into
nil reform in college sports.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Has that ruined college sports?
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Buckle up, it's time for the truth with Lisa Booth
and Clay Travis. Well, Clay Travis, it's great to have
you on the show. Appreciate you making the time.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Appreciate you continuing to dominate. I think the last time
I saw you was in New York City and you
were wearing a Tennessee orange ish outfit. So so hopefully
we'll have some games to celebrate this fall. But in
the meantime, I got a little bit of time.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So that was actually going to be my first question
to you. We'll get the important stuff out of the
way first. How do you think Tennessee will do this year?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Well, so, did you pay attention as afore as an
alum to the drama surrounding Nico and what.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Was going to happen?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I mean, it was such a big story, it was
hard to miss, and so I think there's a lot
of question about the quarterback position.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
The over under.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
You know, you know I love sports gambling and have
been involved in sports gambling for a long time. Is
eight and a half wins. I think that's probably about accurate.
I think they'll go eight and four or nine and three.
I think they'll struggle as usual to beat Alabama and
Florida on the road, so I would put losses in there.
Georgia Tennessee has not been very good at for a
(02:17):
long time. Georgia obviously very good. That game is in Knoxville,
so I would probably say that is going to end
up being a loss too, and then they should win
the rest. So again, I think eight and a half
nine wins is probably a fair estimation. So I would
say eight and four, nine and three not bad, but
not elite.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
So I shouldn't purchase SEC Championship.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Should not purchase SEC Championship tickets again, and then and
then have me buy them and give them to deserving
a dad and a son, which was a very positive
way in that story, by the way, for.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
People who don't know, you.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Bought a couple of years ago SEC Championship game tickets
thinking Tennessee was going to be there, and then Tennis
he was not there and uh, and so we ended
up giving tickets to uh deserve.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Was he an lsu fan? I think an L s
u fan? L guy?
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, Yeah, So basically I got a little excited.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Watching because we'd beat Bama, yep.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
And then so I got a little too over my
skis and so I like bought these like sick tickets
to the SEC Championship and then we did not make it,
and I was like trying to offload them, and.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I was texting like everyone I knew.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I was like trying to figure out how to get
you know, how to like get someone to buy them.
And then I texted Clay and he was like, let
me buy them, like we'll give him away to someone,
and which was really sweet to you.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
By the way, you have a good.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Want to kill my reputation that I'm doing nice things.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
So yeah, and we we found this guy who, uh
special Forces guy, you know, he was suffering from TBI
and you know, but just really good guy. And he
took a son and did the best time. I did
pay for the hotel because I don't want to be
like a total cheap ass, but it was really actually
end up being really cool and that was really nice
of you to do. So it ended up turning my
(04:03):
ill advised decision into you know, something that was really nice.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So appreciate you doing that. And I was really kind.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
But yeah, I like to see I'm a sucker for
since I'm a dad of three. Anytime dads and or
moms who were sports fans get to go with young
kids to games. I just remember, I've talked about this before,
but I'm sure you feel the same way. You remember
things so much better when you're like eleven, twelve, and
thirteen whatever, when you get to do super fun things
(04:32):
in a way that doesn't resonate the same way for
whatever reason as when you're twenty three or thirty three
or whatever, when you become older and more of an adult.
And so I still remember some of those awesome trips
to games that I got to go on when I
was eleven or twelve better than I do. You know,
games that I went to three or four years ago.
It's really kind of crazy.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Well, and it's also you know, so I grew up
with my da, I grew up going to a Caps game.
You know, I had three brothers, right, So I played sports.
My whole life was always kind of like you know,
the girl that like had a bow in my hair,
but they would like roll around in the mud and
like kick soccer balls and throw fo you know that
kind of thing, but and played sports. But so I
we grew you know, we went to Caps games with
my dad growing up, and I remember my brother, my
older brother.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
And I we saw a drug bust outside of.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
The Caps game and that was we thought it was
like the coolest, Like that was like the highlight. And
we came home and like told my mom. My mom
was like, what that's uh?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Was that when the cat did the Caps play where
they do now? Or was it because people forget like
that arena that they have now used to be in
a really rough neighborhood and and then it eventually got
got pretty nice, but but you know, it was it
was not a very safe place to be after hours sometimes.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, I don't remember, honestly, I'm forty. It was so
long ago.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
But and then also Slapshots signed my cast on the Jombotron,
and I thought, I was like, that would.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Be super cool if you could find that video.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, Like I was like, oh, man, like this is
a big move. Yes, I'm on the jumbo.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Tron like this it is pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
I got my I got my boys on the jumbo
Tron a couple of times. The Braves to their credit
during COVID when they wouldn't let anybody in the stadium.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
It was really pretty bad ass.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
They still had kids doing like the Hey, let's you know,
toss it to the Braves on television. They put it
on the jumbo tron even though there were no no
fans there, and they let my son say, Hey, I'm
you know, Lincoln Travis, this is the Atlanta Braves game
or whatever, like it's time to play ball. And I
mean that's pretty badass, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Especially like when you're a kid, it's totally it's and
like even as an.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Adult, but like you know, when you're a kid, particularly,
it's like very and you get to like tell all
your friends at school and it's you know, it's very cool.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
All right. So Clay, Jake Tapper and now it's.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Thompson have this book out about the cover up of
Joe Biden's health.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Did you know that Joe Biden wasn't doing well?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
I had a sneaky suspicion that I talked about incessantly
for four straight years on my radio show, as well
as tweeting videos that I was told were cheap fakes
and that I was a purveyor of misinformation and disinformation
for years, as I know you were on top of this.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Also, and.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Somehow all of us were able to see what Jake
Tapper and most of the members of the Washington d C.
Press Corps were unable to see, which is, Joe Biden
was not mentally or physically able to do the job
of President of the United States.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It's pretty wild to profit off of something that they
knew all long.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yes, getting rewarded for you know, you know, I think
it's a great point.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
But you know what I think it is, Lisa, like
even beyond that is he profited in both directions, right,
because as long as he was helping to prop up
the weekend at Bernie's presidency of Joe Biden, they.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Would give him good guests.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
So his an in show in theory got access to
better news making guests because he was in good standing
with the Democrat Party, because he was willing to tell
the lies that were necessary.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
To stay in good standing.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And as soon as Joe Biden's political career was over,
and as soon as Kamala Harris lost and there was
now going to be four years where no one was
in power in either of those sort of sort of
the universes, then they could tell the truth and it
was so eminently predictable that this would happen. I said,
(08:31):
and I don't know how you would break this down,
but if you think about villainy, like who's to blame?
Speaker 4 (08:37):
To me, the media is number one.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
And let me tell you why I would make that case,
Because their job.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Is to speak truth to power.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
I think that they are over and above beyond anybody
who lied about Joe Biden's physical mental deterioration. Like I
expect that the people that surround Joe Biden wouldn't say, hey,
guess what, you know what he's like a shamble of
the person that he used to be, because that would
be super disloyal once he was already elected, to sit
(09:10):
around and lie about him now. So I put media
number one on the blame chart because their job is
to challenge and to be adversarial to people in power.
But the person who's inside of the Biden team, to me,
it's Jill I mean what one see. I put her
at two because the reason is and I'll let's let's
(09:33):
let's talk about this. But I put her at number
one in the administration because she was clearly aware of
what was going on but she is not supposed to
be adversarial, which is why I have her at number
one inside of the Biden team. But I think the
media is worse. And look, I think what she told herself,
(09:56):
and tell me if you buy this thesis. First of all,
I think she's not a good person, and I think
that she should be like severely questioned and blamed about
all of this. But I think what she told herself
was she convinced herself that Donald Trump was Hitler and
that her husband was the only thing that stood between
Hitler and America descending into Nazi Germany. And we all
(10:21):
know that's a joke, but I think that's what she
convinced herself of. And so if that were the choice,
is Joe Biden, even in a diminished mental and physical state,
better than Adolf Hitler? In her mind, the answer was
probably yes. And I think she looked around, knew Kamala
was not up to the job, and said, nobody else
(10:43):
can beat Trump. Joe might be able to do it.
I'm going to help cover up everything about it.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
See.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I think she's just so fame and power hungry that
she was willing to sacrifice her husband to public humiliation.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
To get it, and I think you're number.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
I find that's what I think.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
That's a read and that's an argument that's legit too,
And I buy into a lot of that as well.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
And like I think, if you love your husband, your
number one job, like if you're a wife and a mom,
like your number one.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Job is to protect your family.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, you know, and like your number and so if
you see your husband and that sort of deteriorated state,
I'm like, I'm going to be like, hey, babe, we
don't need this.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
You know, We've got enough money. Like life's good.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Go do speeches, write books, Let's go. You know, we
can go spend all the time on the beach, adult
like whatever, right, Like let's rite off in the sunset,
you know, Like I agree with you, leg see as
it is.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
You know, I talked to my wife a couple of
years ago. I mean this goes to how much we
talked about it, not only in on the show but
also privately, and I said, hey, I do three hours
a day of radio. I'm forty six. Hopefully I've got,
you know, thirty years of being fairly solid mentally still
to go. But I said, you're going to notice if
(11:57):
I start to deteriorate as all spouse's due before probably
most people in public will because think about it. I mean,
this was the argument I made Lisa for why it
had to be so much worse behind closed doors. We
only saw Joe Biden about five percent of the day,
and they were doing everything they.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Could to make him look.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
The best that they possibly could, and it was still
an awful look. And so I told her, I said, look,
imagine what's going on behind closed doors. I said, look,
we're in a good spot, like I'm not going to
need to work to you know, we'll have enough money,
like we can, to your point, go hang out at
the beach or whatever else. But if you start to
(12:39):
see that I have completely lost my fastball. Tell me,
like sit down with me and say, hey, I think
it's time.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
To hang it up.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
And I had that conversation because I watched what was
going on with Joe Biden, and I don't ever want
to be in public a shell of the person because
we have kind of public jobs that I had been before.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah, and like and you should yeah, and your wife
is the person who was like supposed, you know, supposed
to have your back on that, which I know your
wife would, but clearly Joe Biden, you know, was more
interested in being able to fly in Air Force one
and you know, having all the power and the fame,
and he.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
May have been, Lisa.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Here's the question that nobody's taken the next step too,
if Joe Biden is clearly and I know this is
a question we asked, but I haven't heard very many
people in the legacy media asking this, if he's unable
to do the job of president, which at a minimum
he was certainly not able to do the job twenty
three and twenty four.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Who was actually making all.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
The incredibly difficult decisions that the president has to make?
Speaker 4 (13:38):
Was it Jill? I mean, look at him on the vote.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I think she's smart enough, like, well know, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Also, here's the thing too, like they're so dumb, Like
I saw the quote from David Pluff saying that, you know,
Joe Biden totally fed them. Obviously he was an advisor
for Kamala and then also for Obama in two thousand
and eight.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
You're an idiot, David, like like Pluff, No, he did not.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
He helped you the longer Kamala Harris would have been
in that race. Those numbers would have looked even worse
for her. He did them a favor by dropping out late,
and then also beyond that, he screwed them.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
By picking her as the VP.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
That's when he fed them over because they were stuck
with the first female, first black vice president. They were
never getting rid of her because they're the party DEI.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
So that's when he screwed them.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
If they had a viable alternative, then you know, maybe
they would have done better. But you know, it's like
they still don't understand it.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
No, you're right.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
I mean, the longer Kamala had to be the rest
of the nominee, the worst I think it would have
gone for her. And remember they tried to hide her too.
They tried to echo the Joe Biden twenty twenty campaign,
except they had COVID as an excuse then so they
could limit his interaction. But they spent a billion and
a half dollars in three months and Kabala lost ground
(14:50):
in all fifty states.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Think about how crazy that.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Is if you they spent way more money than the
Trump team. The Trump team has said, hey, if we
had Kamala money, and it maybe well true, they said, hey,
we want have won New Jersey and we would have
won Virginia.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
They lost both those states, I.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Think by five, but they just didn't have the resources
to be able to pour into as many states as
Kamala did. And if they had had her money, if
they've been able to outspend Kamala, they think that they
would have been able to run up the margin even more.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah, she's probably going to go down as one of
the worst presidential candidates and history, certainly in modern politics.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I wanted to ask you about.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
This Middle East tour are a colleague from Fox, Trae
Inks tweeted, there is a massive momentum shift happening right
now in the Middle East, real opportunities for peace and diplomacy. Obviously,
this comes as the president's been in the Middle East.
You know, we know that he got the Abraham Cords
done during his first term. Why do you think that
President Trump is able and can broke her peace where
(15:53):
other presidents have failed?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Because I think he focuses on the deal more than
he focuses on the politics surrounding the deal, and I
don't think that gets talked about enough. Ultimately, Trump is
and has spent most of his career negotiating deals and
you know this because you've been around him. He's actually
an incredibly likable guy face to face. And I think
(16:19):
so much of these deals with foreign leaders come down
to a large extent to personal relationships because there's so
many different moving parts, there's so many subsidiary individuals involved.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Ultimately, when you're doing a.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Deal with somebody, it comes down to do you trust
the primary principal person on the other side of the table.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
And also maybe do you like him?
Speaker 3 (16:43):
And so I think Trump understands and respects the Saudi,
the UAE, and the Katar individuals who are super strong.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Business people, right.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I think you strip away everything else. Business people speak
a common language, and I think they connect on hey,
let's figure out ways to make money.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
We're capitalists.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
And I think Trump respects that and so I think
that works on that level. And then also I think
he's not hamstrung by what people said in the past,
because Trump, uniquely for a politician, is not a grudge guy.
I mean, Jade Vance compared him to Hitler and.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
He's the VP. Right.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
There are a lot of people in politics who if
you've ever said anything negative about them, they remember it
for the rest of their career. Trump is transactional in
the sense that he may say something bad about you,
you may say something bad about him, but when it
comes time to get a deal done, he's willing to
sit across the table from you and hammer out a deal.
So I think it's being willing to reject all of
(17:47):
the past history and just focus on, Hey, do I
trust these individuals? Are they business people? And typically what
do business people want? They want to create environments where
where money is made, where is more money usually made.
Usually it's in peace. It's not in war unless you're
a defense contractor. And so I think all of that
(18:09):
factors together and I'm cautiously optimistic that Trump may be
able to solve some of the issues in the Middle
East and make it a safer, healthier place to do
business and live. I also think Lisa Trump is not
all in on having some sort of religious aspect to this,
(18:30):
and that might sound a little bit controversial to some people,
But when you're talking about the Jews and you're talking
about the Muslims in the Middle East, I don't think
Trump has some strong affiliation with either the Jewish faith
or the Muslim faith such that he feels like he
has to make a choice on a religious basis. I
think he's focused more on the business side than the
(18:52):
religious element. And given the fact that you toss in
typically a Christian president from the United States, you've got
three different religions and sometimes pulling in three different ways.
And I think Trump is more focused on the commerce
and the business side than the religious aspects, which I
think is helpful.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Well, it's also interesting because you know, he was able
to improve his numbers with both Jewish voters and totally
with you know, Muslim voters as well.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
We've got more with Clay Travis.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
But first I want to change gears for just a
moment and talk about Israel. It's now the month of May,
and eighty years ago this very month, the horror of
the Holocaust, the final Solution came to an end. But
did you know that half of all Holocaust survivors live
in Israel. The pain of the past is now intensified
today by October seventh and the rise of anti Semitism everywhere,
(19:44):
and along with other elderly Jews, thousands in Israel live
below the poverty line.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
There's no safety net.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
That's why I support the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
The Fellowship provides a lifeline to those precious ones in
the form of hot meals and boxes full of healthy food.
And for only twenty five dollars you can help provide
a food box. Better yet, three hundred and thirty five
dollars provides hot meals for an entire year. To give
(20:11):
generously call eight eight eight four a eight IFDJ eight
eight eight four A eight four three two five, or
you can also go online to give at IFDJ dot org.
That's IFDJ dot org. There was a line from his
speech in Saudi Arabia that I thought was great where
he said that he wanted to forge a future where
(20:31):
the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos. Sort
of your point, and I think what's really interesting about him,
and I'd love your input on this, is how he
sees these economic deals as a means to national security.
Like this understanding that if you're in business together, there's
this mutual desire for stability in the region and sort
(20:52):
of tying those two together that's.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Really unique to his background as a business guy. You know,
what do you think about that?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
I think it's totally true, and you know, I'm an
old school history nerd, you know, with the number one
way that kingdoms used to align themselves in old history
historical terms, to try to avoid or they would marry
their sons and daughters to each other. And and it
(21:21):
doesn't get talked about that much anymore, but the goal
to try to keep France. So yeah, you need, yeah,
maybe there's a maybe there's a kingdom you can be you.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Can be buried off, you know, principles.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
But you know, it's funny, but we don't think about
it as much now, but it actually does make a
lot of sense, right because they would say, well, if
your grandson is going to end up being the king
of France, you're probably less likely to invade if you're
in charge of England or vice versa.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Right, just to use some of the examples there.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
And the commerce example, I would say is some form
of a modern business relation relationship. Those were business relationships
and they were political in nature, but the idea was
you both had something to lose and something dear to
you that mattered, and in a capitalistic context, you know,
before the era really kind of fell apart, Thomas Friedman
(22:17):
had a theory which was super interesting, and it was
two countries that had a McDonald's, had never gone to
war before, and it was using McDonald's as sort of
a metaphor for global connection and a common language that
you could speak. Now it has ended since, but I
do think that Trump looking at it from the commerce
perspective is more likely to be able to speak a
(22:41):
common language than people trying to look at it through
the prism of maybe religion or geopolitical history. And you know,
I was in Israel in December. I don't know if
you've been to Israel. I'd never been before, le not.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
I've always wanted to go, Okay, so.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
It's an amazing trip.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
And what stood out to me when I was walking
through the Old City of Jerusalem is the incredibly important
site of the Muslim faith, the Christian faith, and the
Jewish faith are all like two hundred yards apart. So
you know, we have this huge global world now, but
basically the three religions that are constantly at each other's
(23:19):
throats over the last thousand years or beyond are all
within just a few hundred yards of each other in
this cradle of civilization, cradle of religion, in the Old
City of Jerusalem.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
And the reason why I bring it up is.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
It was amazing to see it in person and think
about how much passion, how much emotion, how much raw raw,
just spirituality is embedded in such a close area, and
then getting people to change their minds about that in
(23:56):
any way when you've got the afterlife and everlasting at
times disagreement, I don't know that you can solve a
religious issue leading with religion, And so I think leading
with commerce actually allows there to be a common language
(24:17):
in a way that is different than it would be
if you are looking at it through the prism of well,
this is the Jewish faith's land, this is the Muslim
faith's land, this is where the Christians are. And I
think Trump is doing that and I think it allows
him to speak a common language without having to trod
on thousands of years of historical rancor.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
And I think that's unique about him.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Well, also, like I was just thinking about this, you
have these cultures too, where like, you know, the men
are very much men, you know, and you can or
you know, there's obviously there's abuse and things that aren't
that great, but you know, point being is, you know,
you've got a lot of these you know, cultures where
like the men are men, and like Trump's a man
right in a way that Biden wasn't and Obama was not,
(25:06):
And so I'm sure there's probably like a respect there where,
you know, Trump's the successful business guy, he's very masculine.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
Think about this, Lisa. It's a good analogy.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
What has Saudi Arabia done to try to ingratiate itself
with the larger world. They've brought WWE AKA wrestling, They've
brought major combat sports UFC and boxing to the kingdom,
and certainly Katar we saw with the World Cup in
twenty twenty two. Am I right about that? I think
(25:36):
I am. And you look at all of these different
setups that have happened, and I think they connect on
sports too, and sports is certainly a world of commerce.
It's also another common language. You and I started off
talking about, you know, the University of Tennessee football. If
you're walking around in the South and you go into
(25:57):
a meeting I live in Nashville, one of the things,
as you could probably most talk about with people in
that meeting is college football before you start talking about
other things. And when you establish in some way a
commonality of language, it can sometimes be disarming in terms
of trying to negotiate about something more significant.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
We've got to take a quick commercial break.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
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preborn dot com slash booth. That's preborn dot com slash
booth sponsored by Preborn. I wanted to ask you about
the tariffs. You know, we've seen recent news obviously with
(27:18):
the deal with the UK, and then also some movement
with China as well. Clearly there was a moment of
absolute freak out with the media and a lot of people.
What do you think people will say about the tariffs
at the end of his term, at the end of
his administration.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Well, you know, hindsight will be twenty twenty, if the
stock market is doing well, if unemployment is low, if
inflation is low. I think they'll say Trump tried to
address something that is a major issue, and most politicians
talk a big game and then avoid making difficult decisions.
And I would say, Lisa, there are three things that
Trump is trying to address in a relatively short period
(27:58):
of time that most politicians would shy from, a shy
away from. One is the border and immigration policy, which
is broken, and a lot of people talk a big
game and then they get in and they don't want
to change anything because it's politically difficult. Another is politics
of trade, the trade imbalances and the issues that have
grown and become bigger and bigger in the generation as
(28:21):
China has come on the world stage. And I would
say the third is the budget. And so if you
look at Trump in the first one hundred and twenty
one hundred.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
And fifty days.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
He went after the budget with Doge in a way
that we've never seen before. He aggressively went after immigration,
shut down the southern border. It doesn't get talked about
at all now, but he basically made it the most
secure it's ever been in our nation's history, and then
tried to go about getting out. I asked Tom Home
and he says, there's twenty million illegals. He's trying to
get the twenty million illegals, certainly the most violent among them, out.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
As rapidly as he can.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
And he's also trying to fix generational trade imbalances.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
And those are all.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Three things that politicians talk about in campaigns and usually
get into an office and avoid because it's hard to
change systemic structural issues that have become a major hindrance
for the nation.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
And I think Trump.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Sees it as this is his opportunity to get things
done in the first two years, and he's going to
move fast and break things.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
And before we go.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Since we started with sports, we'll end with sports as well.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
I wanted to get your.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Take on the NIL deals in college athletics. We've seen
people like former Alabama coach Nick Saban talk about how,
you know, he's worried about how it's impacting college athletics,
you know, arguing that there's sort of this lack of
competitive balance with some schools being able to spend significantly
more on an A NIL deals than others, and that
(29:46):
this disparity is creating an unequal playing field. These club
for Congress to act to make it equal across the board,
and even ask for President Trump to step in. Do
they have a role in this and how has ANIL
changed college sports?
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Okay, so, first of all, NIL is a broad category NIL.
I don't know if you know Olivia Done. She's now
former LSU gymnast. She's going to be on the cover
of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, really good looking, super
popular on social media. What she does is actually in IL.
She gets deals with and you're probably going to know
these brands better than me as a vr A.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
It's you know, likes, she's.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Wearing the different the gear and she's advertising for them.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
That is in IL. Right.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
If you've got a Windy sponsorship, that's in IL, name,
image and likeness, If you sold your autograph, that's in IL.
What really NIL has become. What Livy done and Olivia
done at LSU has done is INIL. What has been
classified as in IL is actually just pay for play,
which is, Hey, I want you to play quarterback for me.
(30:53):
I'm going to give you three million dollars. Hey, I
want you to play linebacker, wide receiver, defensive back, whatever
it is. Here's step one hundred thousand dollars. And so
the game of college sports is dedicated from a popularity
perspective on the competition itself. At least I've argued for
a long time, sports is the only business I can
(31:16):
think of where you don't want to put the team
that you compete against out of business. Right Like, if
I run Walmart, I wanted kmart to go into the ground,
I want Target to go bankrupt. If I'm at McDonald's,
I want Wendy's and Burger King to go bankrupt because
I'm kicking.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Their ass so much.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
In sports, if you're too dominant, then people don't watch
as much. The competition is actually the business. And so
what Nick Saban is getting to and what a lot
of these guys are sitting around and talking about, is well,
the reason salary caps exist in the NBA, in the NFL,
in the NHL soccer in the United States is because
(31:56):
otherwise the richest guy just buys all the best players
and the competition is not as good. And the concern
right now in sports is the richest schools are just
going to go get all the best players, and the
overall quality of competition is going to collapse because if
I have one hundred million dollars to spend on my
team and you only have five million, or vice versa,
(32:20):
you should kick my ass all the time because your
players are going to be way better than mine. And
so they're trying to restore some form of competitive balance
in a new world where suddenly players can be paid
with something other than college scholarships to attend schools that
makes sense.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Do you think Congress or President Trump would get involved.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Well, so, I think what they should do is if
they could give an anti trust exemption.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
And this is getting into the weeds a little.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Bit, but right now, every time somebody tries to restrict
compensation for players, the players sue and say, well, you
guys can't all come together and restrict how much I
make because there is no collective bargaining agreement.
Speaker 4 (33:05):
And again getting in the weeds a little bit.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
The only reason, say, Lebron James can't sue the NBA
because he's been underpaid during his tenure is because there's
a collective bargaining agreement. And what it really does is
keep the best players from making as much as they
otherwise would, but it elevates the lower tier players so
that they make more. It's kind of the purpose of
(33:27):
a union in general, right, that's what the players union does.
There is no players union in college athletics. So if
they could say, hey, there's no antitrust violations, then all
these schools can get together and say, hey, everybody's going
to have the same budget. Each of you gets twenty
million dollars to pay on play pay players. People still
(33:48):
do well, but you don't get into a situation where
what I think is inevitable is a billionaire. You know
Tim Cook went to Auburn, right, he's the CEO of Apple.
If Tim Cook decided, hey, I'm going to give a
billion dollars to Auburn, they would get the best players
every year. And it might be good if you're an
Auburn fan, But if you're an Alabama fan, or if
(34:09):
you're a Tennessee fan, or if you're an LSU fan
or Georgia somebody that's playing Auburn many years and competing
with them in many sports, well that's not very fair
because they're always going to have the best players. We want,
I think a competitive playing field. But where it comes
down to how good are your coaches, how good are
your recruiting, how well are you developing players? Not simply
(34:32):
can you go pay the most money to get the
best players. Then it devalues the overall competition and people
in theory are going to care less.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Claid Travis, I think we solve the world's problems. I
hope always great to have you on, Always smart and interesting.
Pop to run into you soon. Ron Fox, appreciate you
making the time.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Clay, no doubt you keep up the good work. I'm
always impressed how well you do too. And Govalls, Oh.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
It's Claid Travis. Appreciate him for making the time come
on the show. Appreciate you guys at home for listening
every Tuesday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the
week until next time.
Welcome to the Truth with Lisa Booth, where we cut
through the noise and we try to get to the
heart of what's really happening. Today, we're going to dive
into all of the big stories with my guest Clay Travis.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
He's the founder of.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
OutKick and the host of The Clay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show. He's also my colleague from Fox News. So
we're going to talk a little bit about the Tennessee
volunteers prospects this football season because Clay Travis is a
huge Tennessee guy and I went to the University of Tennessee.
So we're going to cover the big topics football. We're
also going to talk about the cover up of Joe
(00:32):
Biden's health. Obviously, this book's out, Jake Tapper, Alex Thompson,
everyone's talking about it. So we'll get Clay's take about
the cover up of Joe Biden's health. Whilso unpack President
Trump's push for peace in the Middle East, using that
momentum he had from the Abraham Accords, striking all these
business deals in the Middle East, Why this business first
(00:54):
approach might just rewrite the region's future. Plus we'll tackle
the latest on Tariff's. Also, we're going to get into
nil reform in college sports.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Has that ruined college sports?
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Buckle up, it's time for the truth with Lisa Booth
and Clay Travis. Well, Clay Travis, it's great to have
you on the show. Appreciate you making the time.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Appreciate you continuing to dominate. I think the last time
I saw you was in New York City and you
were wearing a Tennessee orange ish outfit. So so hopefully
we'll have some games to celebrate this fall. But in
the meantime, I got a little bit of time.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So that was actually going to be my first question
to you. We'll get the important stuff out of the
way first. How do you think Tennessee will do this year?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Well, so, did you pay attention as afore as an
alum to the drama surrounding Nico and what.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Was going to happen?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I mean, it was such a big story, it was
hard to miss, and so I think there's a lot
of question about the quarterback position.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
The over under.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
You know, you know I love sports gambling and have
been involved in sports gambling for a long time. Is
eight and a half wins. I think that's probably about accurate.
I think they'll go eight and four or nine and three.
I think they'll struggle as usual to beat Alabama and
Florida on the road, so I would put losses in there.
Georgia Tennessee has not been very good at for a
(02:17):
long time. Georgia obviously very good. That game is in Knoxville,
so I would probably say that is going to end
up being a loss too, and then they should win
the rest. So again, I think eight and a half
nine wins is probably a fair estimation. So I would
say eight and four, nine and three not bad, but
not elite.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
So I shouldn't purchase SEC Championship.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Should not purchase SEC Championship tickets again, and then and
then have me buy them and give them to deserving
a dad and a son, which was a very positive
way in that story, by the way, for.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
People who don't know, you.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Bought a couple of years ago SEC Championship game tickets
thinking Tennessee was going to be there, and then Tennis
he was not there and uh, and so we ended
up giving tickets to uh deserve.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Was he an lsu fan? I think an L s
u fan? L guy?
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, Yeah, So basically I got a little excited.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Watching because we'd beat Bama, yep.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
And then so I got a little too over my
skis and so I like bought these like sick tickets
to the SEC Championship and then we did not make it,
and I was like trying to offload them, and.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I was texting like everyone I knew.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I was like trying to figure out how to get
you know, how to like get someone to buy them.
And then I texted Clay and he was like, let
me buy them, like we'll give him away to someone,
and which was really sweet to you.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
By the way, you have a good.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Want to kill my reputation that I'm doing nice things.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
So yeah, and we we found this guy who, uh
special Forces guy, you know, he was suffering from TBI
and you know, but just really good guy. And he
took a son and did the best time. I did
pay for the hotel because I don't want to be
like a total cheap ass, but it was really actually
end up being really cool and that was really nice
of you to do. So it ended up turning my
(04:03):
ill advised decision into you know, something that was really nice.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So appreciate you doing that. And I was really kind.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
But yeah, I like to see I'm a sucker for
since I'm a dad of three. Anytime dads and or
moms who were sports fans get to go with young
kids to games. I just remember, I've talked about this before,
but I'm sure you feel the same way. You remember
things so much better when you're like eleven, twelve, and
thirteen whatever, when you get to do super fun things
(04:32):
in a way that doesn't resonate the same way for
whatever reason as when you're twenty three or thirty three
or whatever, when you become older and more of an adult.
And so I still remember some of those awesome trips
to games that I got to go on when I
was eleven or twelve better than I do. You know,
games that I went to three or four years ago.
It's really kind of crazy.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Well, and it's also you know, so I grew up
with my da, I grew up going to a Caps game.
You know, I had three brothers, right, So I played sports.
My whole life was always kind of like you know,
the girl that like had a bow in my hair,
but they would like roll around in the mud and
like kick soccer balls and throw fo you know that
kind of thing, but and played sports. But so I
we grew you know, we went to Caps games with
my dad growing up, and I remember my brother, my
older brother.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
And I we saw a drug bust outside of.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
The Caps game and that was we thought it was
like the coolest, Like that was like the highlight. And
we came home and like told my mom. My mom
was like, what that's uh?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Was that when the cat did the Caps play where
they do now? Or was it because people forget like
that arena that they have now used to be in
a really rough neighborhood and and then it eventually got
got pretty nice, but but you know, it was it
was not a very safe place to be after hours sometimes.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, I don't remember, honestly, I'm forty. It was so
long ago.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
But and then also Slapshots signed my cast on the Jombotron,
and I thought, I was like, that would.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Be super cool if you could find that video.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, Like I was like, oh, man, like this is
a big move. Yes, I'm on the jumbo.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Tron like this it is pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
I got my I got my boys on the jumbo
Tron a couple of times. The Braves to their credit
during COVID when they wouldn't let anybody in the stadium.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
It was really pretty bad ass.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
They still had kids doing like the Hey, let's you know,
toss it to the Braves on television. They put it
on the jumbo tron even though there were no no
fans there, and they let my son say, Hey, I'm
you know, Lincoln Travis, this is the Atlanta Braves game
or whatever, like it's time to play ball. And I
mean that's pretty badass, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Especially like when you're a kid, it's totally it's and
like even as an.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Adult, but like you know, when you're a kid, particularly,
it's like very and you get to like tell all
your friends at school and it's you know, it's very cool.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
All right. So Clay, Jake Tapper and now it's.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Thompson have this book out about the cover up of
Joe Biden's health.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Did you know that Joe Biden wasn't doing well?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
I had a sneaky suspicion that I talked about incessantly
for four straight years on my radio show, as well
as tweeting videos that I was told were cheap fakes
and that I was a purveyor of misinformation and disinformation
for years, as I know you were on top of this.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Also, and.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Somehow all of us were able to see what Jake
Tapper and most of the members of the Washington d C.
Press Corps were unable to see, which is, Joe Biden
was not mentally or physically able to do the job
of President of the United States.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It's pretty wild to profit off of something that they
knew all long.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yes, getting rewarded for you know, you know, I think
it's a great point.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
But you know what I think it is, Lisa, like
even beyond that is he profited in both directions, right,
because as long as he was helping to prop up
the weekend at Bernie's presidency of Joe Biden, they.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Would give him good guests.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
So his an in show in theory got access to
better news making guests because he was in good standing
with the Democrat Party, because he was willing to tell
the lies that were necessary.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
To stay in good standing.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And as soon as Joe Biden's political career was over,
and as soon as Kamala Harris lost and there was
now going to be four years where no one was
in power in either of those sort of sort of
the universes, then they could tell the truth and it
was so eminently predictable that this would happen. I said,
(08:31):
and I don't know how you would break this down,
but if you think about villainy, like who's to blame?
Speaker 4 (08:37):
To me, the media is number one.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
And let me tell you why I would make that case,
Because their job.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Is to speak truth to power.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
I think that they are over and above beyond anybody
who lied about Joe Biden's physical mental deterioration. Like I
expect that the people that surround Joe Biden wouldn't say, hey,
guess what, you know what he's like a shamble of
the person that he used to be, because that would
be super disloyal once he was already elected, to sit
(09:10):
around and lie about him now. So I put media
number one on the blame chart because their job is
to challenge and to be adversarial to people in power.
But the person who's inside of the Biden team, to me,
it's Jill I mean what one see. I put her
at two because the reason is and I'll let's let's
(09:33):
let's talk about this. But I put her at number
one in the administration because she was clearly aware of
what was going on but she is not supposed to
be adversarial, which is why I have her at number
one inside of the Biden team. But I think the
media is worse. And look, I think what she told herself,
(09:56):
and tell me if you buy this thesis. First of all,
I think she's not a good person, and I think
that she should be like severely questioned and blamed about
all of this. But I think what she told herself
was she convinced herself that Donald Trump was Hitler and
that her husband was the only thing that stood between
Hitler and America descending into Nazi Germany. And we all
(10:21):
know that's a joke, but I think that's what she
convinced herself of. And so if that were the choice,
is Joe Biden, even in a diminished mental and physical state,
better than Adolf Hitler? In her mind, the answer was
probably yes. And I think she looked around, knew Kamala
was not up to the job, and said, nobody else
(10:43):
can beat Trump. Joe might be able to do it.
I'm going to help cover up everything about it.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
See.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I think she's just so fame and power hungry that
she was willing to sacrifice her husband to public humiliation.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
To get it, and I think you're number.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
I find that's what I think.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
That's a read and that's an argument that's legit too,
And I buy into a lot of that as well.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
And like I think, if you love your husband, your
number one job, like if you're a wife and a mom,
like your number one.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Job is to protect your family.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, you know, and like your number and so if
you see your husband and that sort of deteriorated state,
I'm like, I'm going to be like, hey, babe, we
don't need this.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
You know, We've got enough money. Like life's good.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Go do speeches, write books, Let's go. You know, we
can go spend all the time on the beach, adult
like whatever, right, Like let's rite off in the sunset,
you know, Like I agree with you, leg see as
it is.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
You know, I talked to my wife a couple of
years ago. I mean this goes to how much we
talked about it, not only in on the show but
also privately, and I said, hey, I do three hours
a day of radio. I'm forty six. Hopefully I've got,
you know, thirty years of being fairly solid mentally still
to go. But I said, you're going to notice if
(11:57):
I start to deteriorate as all spouse's due before probably
most people in public will because think about it. I mean,
this was the argument I made Lisa for why it
had to be so much worse behind closed doors. We
only saw Joe Biden about five percent of the day,
and they were doing everything they.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Could to make him look.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
The best that they possibly could, and it was still
an awful look. And so I told her, I said, look,
imagine what's going on behind closed doors. I said, look,
we're in a good spot, like I'm not going to
need to work to you know, we'll have enough money,
like we can, to your point, go hang out at
the beach or whatever else. But if you start to
(12:39):
see that I have completely lost my fastball. Tell me,
like sit down with me and say, hey, I think
it's time.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
To hang it up.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
And I had that conversation because I watched what was
going on with Joe Biden, and I don't ever want
to be in public a shell of the person because
we have kind of public jobs that I had been before.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah, and like and you should yeah, and your wife
is the person who was like supposed, you know, supposed
to have your back on that, which I know your
wife would, but clearly Joe Biden, you know, was more
interested in being able to fly in Air Force one
and you know, having all the power and the fame,
and he.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
May have been, Lisa.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Here's the question that nobody's taken the next step too,
if Joe Biden is clearly and I know this is
a question we asked, but I haven't heard very many
people in the legacy media asking this, if he's unable
to do the job of president, which at a minimum
he was certainly not able to do the job twenty
three and twenty four.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Who was actually making all.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
The incredibly difficult decisions that the president has to make?
Speaker 4 (13:38):
Was it Jill? I mean, look at him on the vote.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I think she's smart enough, like, well know, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Also, here's the thing too, like they're so dumb, Like
I saw the quote from David Pluff saying that, you know,
Joe Biden totally fed them. Obviously he was an advisor
for Kamala and then also for Obama in two thousand
and eight.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
You're an idiot, David, like like Pluff, No, he did not.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
He helped you the longer Kamala Harris would have been
in that race. Those numbers would have looked even worse
for her. He did them a favor by dropping out late,
and then also beyond that, he screwed them.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
By picking her as the VP.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
That's when he fed them over because they were stuck
with the first female, first black vice president. They were
never getting rid of her because they're the party DEI.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
So that's when he screwed them.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
If they had a viable alternative, then you know, maybe
they would have done better. But you know, it's like
they still don't understand it.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
No, you're right.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
I mean, the longer Kamala had to be the rest
of the nominee, the worst I think it would have
gone for her. And remember they tried to hide her too.
They tried to echo the Joe Biden twenty twenty campaign,
except they had COVID as an excuse then so they
could limit his interaction. But they spent a billion and
a half dollars in three months and Kabala lost ground
(14:50):
in all fifty states.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Think about how crazy that.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Is if you they spent way more money than the
Trump team. The Trump team has said, hey, if we
had Kamala money, and it maybe well true, they said, hey,
we want have won New Jersey and we would have
won Virginia.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
They lost both those states, I.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Think by five, but they just didn't have the resources
to be able to pour into as many states as
Kamala did. And if they had had her money, if
they've been able to outspend Kamala, they think that they
would have been able to run up the margin even more.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah, she's probably going to go down as one of
the worst presidential candidates and history, certainly in modern politics.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I wanted to ask you about.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
This Middle East tour are a colleague from Fox, Trae
Inks tweeted, there is a massive momentum shift happening right
now in the Middle East, real opportunities for peace and diplomacy. Obviously,
this comes as the president's been in the Middle East.
You know, we know that he got the Abraham Cords
done during his first term. Why do you think that
President Trump is able and can broke her peace where
(15:53):
other presidents have failed?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Because I think he focuses on the deal more than
he focuses on the politics surrounding the deal, and I
don't think that gets talked about enough. Ultimately, Trump is
and has spent most of his career negotiating deals and
you know this because you've been around him. He's actually
an incredibly likable guy face to face. And I think
(16:19):
so much of these deals with foreign leaders come down
to a large extent to personal relationships because there's so
many different moving parts, there's so many subsidiary individuals involved.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Ultimately, when you're doing a.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Deal with somebody, it comes down to do you trust
the primary principal person on the other side of the table.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
And also maybe do you like him?
Speaker 3 (16:43):
And so I think Trump understands and respects the Saudi,
the UAE, and the Katar individuals who are super strong.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Business people, right.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I think you strip away everything else. Business people speak
a common language, and I think they connect on hey,
let's figure out ways to make money.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
We're capitalists.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
And I think Trump respects that and so I think
that works on that level. And then also I think
he's not hamstrung by what people said in the past,
because Trump, uniquely for a politician, is not a grudge guy.
I mean, Jade Vance compared him to Hitler and.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
He's the VP. Right.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
There are a lot of people in politics who if
you've ever said anything negative about them, they remember it
for the rest of their career. Trump is transactional in
the sense that he may say something bad about you,
you may say something bad about him, but when it
comes time to get a deal done, he's willing to
sit across the table from you and hammer out a deal.
So I think it's being willing to reject all of
(17:47):
the past history and just focus on, Hey, do I
trust these individuals? Are they business people? And typically what
do business people want? They want to create environments where
where money is made, where is more money usually made.
Usually it's in peace. It's not in war unless you're
a defense contractor. And so I think all of that
(18:09):
factors together and I'm cautiously optimistic that Trump may be
able to solve some of the issues in the Middle
East and make it a safer, healthier place to do
business and live. I also think Lisa Trump is not
all in on having some sort of religious aspect to this,
(18:30):
and that might sound a little bit controversial to some people,
But when you're talking about the Jews and you're talking
about the Muslims in the Middle East, I don't think
Trump has some strong affiliation with either the Jewish faith
or the Muslim faith such that he feels like he
has to make a choice on a religious basis. I
think he's focused more on the business side than the
(18:52):
religious element. And given the fact that you toss in
typically a Christian president from the United States, you've got
three different religions and sometimes pulling in three different ways.
And I think Trump is more focused on the commerce
and the business side than the religious aspects, which I
think is helpful.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Well, it's also interesting because you know, he was able
to improve his numbers with both Jewish voters and totally
with you know, Muslim voters as well.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
We've got more with Clay Travis.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
But first I want to change gears for just a
moment and talk about Israel. It's now the month of May,
and eighty years ago this very month, the horror of
the Holocaust, the final Solution came to an end. But
did you know that half of all Holocaust survivors live
in Israel. The pain of the past is now intensified
today by October seventh and the rise of anti Semitism everywhere,
(19:44):
and along with other elderly Jews, thousands in Israel live
below the poverty line.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
There's no safety net.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
That's why I support the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
The Fellowship provides a lifeline to those precious ones in
the form of hot meals and boxes full of healthy food.
And for only twenty five dollars you can help provide
a food box. Better yet, three hundred and thirty five
dollars provides hot meals for an entire year. To give
(20:11):
generously call eight eight eight four a eight IFDJ eight
eight eight four A eight four three two five, or
you can also go online to give at IFDJ dot org.
That's IFDJ dot org. There was a line from his
speech in Saudi Arabia that I thought was great where
he said that he wanted to forge a future where
(20:31):
the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos. Sort
of your point, and I think what's really interesting about him,
and I'd love your input on this, is how he
sees these economic deals as a means to national security.
Like this understanding that if you're in business together, there's
this mutual desire for stability in the region and sort
(20:52):
of tying those two together that's.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Really unique to his background as a business guy. You know,
what do you think about that?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
I think it's totally true, and you know, I'm an
old school history nerd, you know, with the number one
way that kingdoms used to align themselves in old history
historical terms, to try to avoid or they would marry
their sons and daughters to each other. And and it
(21:21):
doesn't get talked about that much anymore, but the goal
to try to keep France. So yeah, you need, yeah,
maybe there's a maybe there's a kingdom you can be you.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Can be buried off, you know, principles.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
But you know, it's funny, but we don't think about
it as much now, but it actually does make a
lot of sense, right because they would say, well, if
your grandson is going to end up being the king
of France, you're probably less likely to invade if you're
in charge of England or vice versa.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Right, just to use some of the examples there.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
And the commerce example, I would say is some form
of a modern business relation relationship. Those were business relationships
and they were political in nature, but the idea was
you both had something to lose and something dear to
you that mattered, and in a capitalistic context, you know,
before the era really kind of fell apart, Thomas Friedman
(22:17):
had a theory which was super interesting, and it was
two countries that had a McDonald's, had never gone to
war before, and it was using McDonald's as sort of
a metaphor for global connection and a common language that
you could speak. Now it has ended since, but I
do think that Trump looking at it from the commerce
perspective is more likely to be able to speak a
(22:41):
common language than people trying to look at it through
the prism of maybe religion or geopolitical history. And you know,
I was in Israel in December. I don't know if
you've been to Israel. I'd never been before, le not.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
I've always wanted to go, Okay, so.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
It's an amazing trip.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
And what stood out to me when I was walking
through the Old City of Jerusalem is the incredibly important
site of the Muslim faith, the Christian faith, and the
Jewish faith are all like two hundred yards apart. So
you know, we have this huge global world now, but
basically the three religions that are constantly at each other's
(23:19):
throats over the last thousand years or beyond are all
within just a few hundred yards of each other in
this cradle of civilization, cradle of religion, in the Old
City of Jerusalem.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
And the reason why I bring it up is.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
It was amazing to see it in person and think
about how much passion, how much emotion, how much raw raw,
just spirituality is embedded in such a close area, and
then getting people to change their minds about that in
(23:56):
any way when you've got the afterlife and everlasting at
times disagreement, I don't know that you can solve a
religious issue leading with religion, And so I think leading
with commerce actually allows there to be a common language
(24:17):
in a way that is different than it would be
if you are looking at it through the prism of well,
this is the Jewish faith's land, this is the Muslim
faith's land, this is where the Christians are. And I
think Trump is doing that and I think it allows
him to speak a common language without having to trod
on thousands of years of historical rancor.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
And I think that's unique about him.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Well, also, like I was just thinking about this, you
have these cultures too, where like, you know, the men
are very much men, you know, and you can or
you know, there's obviously there's abuse and things that aren't
that great, but you know, point being is, you know,
you've got a lot of these you know, cultures where
like the men are men, and like Trump's a man
right in a way that Biden wasn't and Obama was not,
(25:06):
And so I'm sure there's probably like a respect there where,
you know, Trump's the successful business guy, he's very masculine.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
Think about this, Lisa. It's a good analogy.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
What has Saudi Arabia done to try to ingratiate itself
with the larger world. They've brought WWE AKA wrestling, They've
brought major combat sports UFC and boxing to the kingdom,
and certainly Katar we saw with the World Cup in
twenty twenty two. Am I right about that? I think
(25:36):
I am. And you look at all of these different
setups that have happened, and I think they connect on
sports too, and sports is certainly a world of commerce.
It's also another common language. You and I started off
talking about, you know, the University of Tennessee football. If
you're walking around in the South and you go into
(25:57):
a meeting I live in Nashville, one of the things,
as you could probably most talk about with people in
that meeting is college football before you start talking about
other things. And when you establish in some way a
commonality of language, it can sometimes be disarming in terms
of trying to negotiate about something more significant.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
We've got to take a quick commercial break.
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booth sponsored by Preborn. I wanted to ask you about
the tariffs. You know, we've seen recent news obviously with
(27:18):
the deal with the UK, and then also some movement
with China as well. Clearly there was a moment of
absolute freak out with the media and a lot of people.
What do you think people will say about the tariffs
at the end of his term, at the end of
his administration.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Well, you know, hindsight will be twenty twenty, if the
stock market is doing well, if unemployment is low, if
inflation is low. I think they'll say Trump tried to
address something that is a major issue, and most politicians
talk a big game and then avoid making difficult decisions.
And I would say, Lisa, there are three things that
Trump is trying to address in a relatively short period
(27:58):
of time that most politicians would shy from, a shy
away from. One is the border and immigration policy, which
is broken, and a lot of people talk a big
game and then they get in and they don't want
to change anything because it's politically difficult. Another is politics
of trade, the trade imbalances and the issues that have
grown and become bigger and bigger in the generation as
(28:21):
China has come on the world stage. And I would
say the third is the budget. And so if you
look at Trump in the first one hundred and twenty
one hundred.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
And fifty days.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
He went after the budget with Doge in a way
that we've never seen before. He aggressively went after immigration,
shut down the southern border. It doesn't get talked about
at all now, but he basically made it the most
secure it's ever been in our nation's history, and then
tried to go about getting out. I asked Tom Home
and he says, there's twenty million illegals. He's trying to
get the twenty million illegals, certainly the most violent among them, out.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
As rapidly as he can.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
And he's also trying to fix generational trade imbalances.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
And those are all.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Three things that politicians talk about in campaigns and usually
get into an office and avoid because it's hard to
change systemic structural issues that have become a major hindrance
for the nation.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
And I think Trump.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Sees it as this is his opportunity to get things
done in the first two years, and he's going to
move fast and break things.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
And before we go.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Since we started with sports, we'll end with sports as well.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
I wanted to get your.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Take on the NIL deals in college athletics. We've seen
people like former Alabama coach Nick Saban talk about how,
you know, he's worried about how it's impacting college athletics,
you know, arguing that there's sort of this lack of
competitive balance with some schools being able to spend significantly
more on an A NIL deals than others, and that
(29:46):
this disparity is creating an unequal playing field. These club
for Congress to act to make it equal across the board,
and even ask for President Trump to step in. Do
they have a role in this and how has ANIL
changed college sports?
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Okay, so, first of all, NIL is a broad category NIL.
I don't know if you know Olivia Done. She's now
former LSU gymnast. She's going to be on the cover
of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, really good looking, super
popular on social media. What she does is actually in IL.
She gets deals with and you're probably going to know
these brands better than me as a vr A.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
It's you know, likes, she's.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Wearing the different the gear and she's advertising for them.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
That is in IL. Right.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
If you've got a Windy sponsorship, that's in IL, name,
image and likeness, If you sold your autograph, that's in IL.
What really NIL has become. What Livy done and Olivia
done at LSU has done is INIL. What has been
classified as in IL is actually just pay for play,
which is, Hey, I want you to play quarterback for me.
(30:53):
I'm going to give you three million dollars. Hey, I
want you to play linebacker, wide receiver, defensive back, whatever
it is. Here's step one hundred thousand dollars. And so
the game of college sports is dedicated from a popularity
perspective on the competition itself. At least I've argued for
a long time, sports is the only business I can
(31:16):
think of where you don't want to put the team
that you compete against out of business. Right Like, if
I run Walmart, I wanted kmart to go into the ground,
I want Target to go bankrupt. If I'm at McDonald's,
I want Wendy's and Burger King to go bankrupt because
I'm kicking.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Their ass so much.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
In sports, if you're too dominant, then people don't watch
as much. The competition is actually the business. And so
what Nick Saban is getting to and what a lot
of these guys are sitting around and talking about, is well,
the reason salary caps exist in the NBA, in the NFL,
in the NHL soccer in the United States is because
(31:56):
otherwise the richest guy just buys all the best players
and the competition is not as good. And the concern
right now in sports is the richest schools are just
going to go get all the best players, and the
overall quality of competition is going to collapse because if
I have one hundred million dollars to spend on my
team and you only have five million, or vice versa,
(32:20):
you should kick my ass all the time because your
players are going to be way better than mine. And
so they're trying to restore some form of competitive balance
in a new world where suddenly players can be paid
with something other than college scholarships to attend schools that
makes sense.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Do you think Congress or President Trump would get involved.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Well, so, I think what they should do is if
they could give an anti trust exemption.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
And this is getting into the weeds a little.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Bit, but right now, every time somebody tries to restrict
compensation for players, the players sue and say, well, you
guys can't all come together and restrict how much I
make because there is no collective bargaining agreement.
Speaker 4 (33:05):
And again getting in the weeds a little bit.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
The only reason, say, Lebron James can't sue the NBA
because he's been underpaid during his tenure is because there's
a collective bargaining agreement. And what it really does is
keep the best players from making as much as they
otherwise would, but it elevates the lower tier players so
that they make more. It's kind of the purpose of
(33:27):
a union in general, right, that's what the players union does.
There is no players union in college athletics. So if
they could say, hey, there's no antitrust violations, then all
these schools can get together and say, hey, everybody's going
to have the same budget. Each of you gets twenty
million dollars to pay on play pay players. People still
(33:48):
do well, but you don't get into a situation where
what I think is inevitable is a billionaire. You know
Tim Cook went to Auburn, right, he's the CEO of Apple.
If Tim Cook decided, hey, I'm going to give a
billion dollars to Auburn, they would get the best players
every year. And it might be good if you're an
Auburn fan, But if you're an Alabama fan, or if
(34:09):
you're a Tennessee fan, or if you're an LSU fan
or Georgia somebody that's playing Auburn many years and competing
with them in many sports, well that's not very fair
because they're always going to have the best players. We want,
I think a competitive playing field. But where it comes
down to how good are your coaches, how good are
your recruiting, how well are you developing players? Not simply
(34:32):
can you go pay the most money to get the
best players. Then it devalues the overall competition and people
in theory are going to care less.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Claid Travis, I think we solve the world's problems. I
hope always great to have you on, Always smart and interesting.
Pop to run into you soon. Ron Fox, appreciate you
making the time.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Clay, no doubt you keep up the good work. I'm
always impressed how well you do too. And Govalls, Oh.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
It's Claid Travis. Appreciate him for making the time come
on the show. Appreciate you guys at home for listening
every Tuesday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the
week until next time.
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Buck Sexton
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